


What It Means To Ask

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Alien Cultural Differences, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:34:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22397884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "One day, Bunnymund offhandedly mentions he used to have a mate, once: a female Pooka, a million liftetimes ago. Cue Jack becoming incredibly self-conscious, angsting over this unknown Pooka that used to be with HIS Bunny. Because how can he, a scrawny, trouble-making HUMAN, ever compete with the memory of Bunnymund’s mate, a Pooka?Bunny wonders what the bloody hell is going on with Jack, because he’s being skittish, walking on eggshells, avoiding him… Turns out that Bunny doesn’t even remember her, anything about her, it was too long ago. Besides, there’s Jack now.Happy ending folks. I want Jack being the insecure teenager he is really."This isn’t really about Bunny not remembering his former mate, but it’s about how serious asking someone to be your mate is in Pooka culture. (There are less serious bonds, but that’s not what Bunny asked Jack.) It’s more of a culture clash. (Also, *quietly banging on pots and pans* Jack is THREE HUNDRED years old. He’s playful, emotional, and fey, but I just can’t feckin’ read him as any sort of ordinary teenager.)
Relationships: E. Aster Bunnymund/Jack Frost
Comments: 4
Kudos: 212
Collections: JackRabbit Short Fics





	What It Means To Ask

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 3/17/2016.

“Right. Right. I’m over three hundred years old, I shouldn’t even be worrying about this, I should relax.” The little fairy at Jack’s side peeped her confusion as to what Jack was talking about. “Sorry!” he said, slowing his somewhat frantic flight. “Nah, it’s—it’s not something I can be clearer about. Because then you might worry, and then you’d probably tell Tooth, and she’d probably worry, and that’s really not necessary. This is something that only I have to deal with.”  
  
The fairy shrugged. If Jack said so. But if he was going to be like that, she was going to go and collect teeth instead.  
  
“Yeah…well, I’ve been kind of preoccupied with this lately,” Jack admitted.  
  
The fairy nodded and patted the tip of his ear, before angling down towards the houses below. As soon as she got the one tooth she had noticed, though—much less than her assignment—she used it to signal that she was done and return to the Tooth Palace at once. She’d learned a few things about Jack other than the way his teeth looked, since he became a Guardian, and one of them was that when he thought other people would worry about him if they knew what he was doing, it was usually the case that they _should_.  
  


* * *

  
  
“I don’t know what’s going on, either,” Bunny said to Tooth, “but the little sheila’s right. Jack has been acting strange. It’s not even like it was when we were first cleaning up the Warren, it’s worse. Like he’s trying to be perfect, though I can’t figure out who he thinks is going to check, and what standard he’s trying for. And that’s when he’s around. He’s practically disappeared ever since we all met up to talk about our pasts.”  
  
“Well,” said Tooth. “If you’re wondering whose standards he’s probably trying to live up to, I would have to guess yours. You’re the only one around when you see him acting that strange.”  
  
Bunny looked taken aback. “I asked him to be my mate, Tooth. He’s got no reason to be anything but himself once I put that out there.”  
  
Tooth used her fingers to preen a few feathers on her head. “Maybe he’s nervous because he hasn’t accepted yet, and he’s afraid that if he waits too long—and I’m sorry to mention this—that you’ll withdraw your question.”  
  
Bunny’s ears drooped. “If he thinks I might do that, no wonder he hasn’t said yes. Have I really been acting like a frivolous asker?”  
  
“You’ve only been acting like yourself,” Tooth said. “I don’t know, personally—and neither does Jack—what a frivolous asker acts like. Sandy’s the only one who was even alive at a time when he could have known.”  
  
Bunny nodded. “I’ve got to find Jack, then. I thought he would need more space than I would have given another pooka, but—ah, I knew I shouldn’t have done that. How could he see it as anything but me neglecting him?”  
  


* * *

  
  
“Jack,” Bunny said. “I’m—I’m really glad you’re here. Do you want anything else other than the tea?”  
  
“No, thank you,” Jack said, formally—very formally.  
  
Bunny tried not to look stressed out. At least Jack had accepted the tea. Nothing else, though—no, Jack didn’t know that meant preparing to say No, there was no way he could know that. “So. I’ve noticed that you haven’t been around to the Warren as often as before, and I interpreted that as you wanting some space and freedom, because I thought I knew you, and you’re the one who gets to decide what happens next. But I’m pretty sure that I was wrong, and instead I’ve just been neglecting you. I’m ashamed that it’s been looking like I wasn’t one hundred percent serious about asking you to be my mate, or that I wasn’t going to value you like I should if you said yes, and—”  
  
“Bunny! Why? Why are you acting like you’re worried about not being serious about me being your mate? There’s—there’s no reason for you to be serious! I’m just—I’m not even a Pooka! I’m not even really alive! I—I’m—how on earth can I compare to the mate you had before? I hardly know what’s expected of me, scratch that, I don’t know anything about what’s expected of me, and I’m going to mess up, I’m going to mess up all the time, and—and—and I can’t be what you need me to be. What you’re asking me to be.” Jack stared miserably at the ground around him, which had begun to frost over.  
  
“Jack.” Bunny sighed. “Well, I guess that answers some questions I was too blinkered to ask. And I guess I didn’t explain what mates mean to Pookas as clearly as I thought. If you care to listen…” Jack didn’t say anything, but Bunny felt a little bright spark of hope. He cleared his throat. “When I asked you to be my mate, that meant that I was asking you, just you, as you are to be my mate. There are other kinds of Pooka bonds I could have asked you to join if I wasn’t so serious about you, as you are and as you change, for as long as you’re around. And what I’m asking of you is that you’ll accept me, as I am and as I change, for as long as I’m around. That we’ll try to change for the better, because we know that our mate accepts us and trusts us as believes in us. It is a Pooka thing, but I think it’s because it’s a bit too permanent for others to want to try it out. Even asking. Asking was meant to show you everything about how I felt. I’m supposed to have already been acting like your mate ever since I asked, because I declared I was willing to. No matter how long it takes you to decide. And if I was going to compare you to Iris, I wouldn’t have asked you to be my mate. I don’t…it’s really terrible among Pooka to ask someone to be your mate if you don’t mean it fully, if you aren’t willing to be their one and only and treat them as your one and only. But I am. That’s why I didn’t treat Iris as a delicate part of my history.” He looked down. “She’s been dead for longer than human civilization has existed. You’re alive, and I had already asked you. I thought I had already made it clear that you were the one for me, now. I didn’t think about how there’s nothing really the same with humans, none of their marriages are like being mates. But I’m still asking you to be my mate.”  
  
Jack looked up, but was quiet for a long moment. “Permanent is pretty frightening for an immortal, you know,” he said.  
  
“I know,” said Bunny. “Doesn’t change that I asked.”  
  
“I don’t know if I can be your mate, back.”  
  
“Please don’t say no yet!” Bunny said. “We can’t ever be even potential mates after a refusal.”  
  
“How long are you willing to wait?” Jack asked.  
  
“As long as it takes,” Bunny said.  
  
“It might take me a really long time to think that I deserve something like being your mate.”  
  
“I asked you,” Bunny said. “That means I had to be prepared for anything, even a really long wait. Now, can I at least get you some chocolate?”  
  
Jack accepted, and Bunny privately thought that they might have very different ideas of what made up a long time.


End file.
